GB will now play Sweden on Wednesday night in curling semi-finals, with the
winners taking on either China or Canada in the final on Friday

British skip David Murdoch described it as the greatest shot of his life. Not just because of the extraordinary skill required but because the consequence of failure would have been elimination from the Olympic Games.

Fortunately for Britain’s medal hopes, it proved to be inch-perfect, sealing a dramatic 6-5 victory over Norway in Tuesday’s tie-breaker and setting up a semi-clash with Sweden on Wednesday.

Murdoch, whose previous Olympic campaigns ended with shattering defeats in Turin in 2006 and Vancouver four years ago, was staring at a third successive disappointment as he picked up his final stone of the 10th end. Britain were trailing 5-4 and, although Murdoch had the advantage of the last throw, it looked as if the best he could hope for was to try for a single point to tie the match score at 5-5.

But that would have meant last-stone advantage, or the ‘hammer’ in curling parlance, switching to the Norwegians for an extra ‘sudden-death’ end, making them big favourites to beat the British rink. At the highest level of men’s curling, it is rare to steal a point in an extra end against the hammer.

The Olympic exit door was beckoning for the GB quartet. But as Murdoch put down his brush to get ready for his last throw, team-mates Greg Drummond and Scott Andrews spotted an alternative shot.

The way the stones were lying, there was one way that Murdoch could score a match-winning double, though it was an improbable ‘death or glory’ shot with no margin for error.

Murdoch would have to hit one of his own stones at exactly the right angle so that it would cannon into the two Norwegian stones that were holding shot and send them out of play before coming to rest close to the button. Miss it and it was all over.

The strategy was so high-risk that the British team called a time-out to discuss the pros and cons with their Swedish coach, Soren Gran, but it was agreed that they had little option but to attempt it. Playing safe and taking one point was not going to get them into the semi-finals.

“I said I think we should try to make the double,” said Gran afterwards. “David looked at me and smiled. I know he likes playing shots and that was the most important thing for me: to see that smile, that fighting spirit.”

The smile vanished as Murdoch slid down the ice to throw his last stone, only to return again as he delivered it to perfection, sending the Norwegian stones spinning out of play in a double takeout and securing the two points needed for victory. The 35-year-old from Lockerbie punched the air in celebration.

Describing his achievement in reaching the last four as “an incredible feeling”, Murdoch admitted it was probably the shot of his career given the high stakes.

“There have been a lot of shots over the years,” he said. “Obviously, we’ve had World Championship wins, but I think when it’s the Olympics and you’ve been here before and you’ve never done it and it’s a shot to get into the semi-final, I think it has to be ranked No 1.”

Team-mate Greg Drummond praised his skip’s skill and calmness under pressure given the challenging nature of the shot.

“You’re going to make that shot maybe one in 50 times,” said Drummond. “It was a difficult shot, particularly to win a curling match. If it was in the middle of the game you’d probably have a go at it and if you missed, no one would think anything of it because it was a tough shot. But to win a curling match, it was one the best he’s played.”

Norwegian skip Thomas Ulsrud, who had played a near-perfect game before Murdoch’s coup de grace, said: “We left them few chances today and perhaps the only one was in the 10th end for David Murdoch. He is a brilliant player and he nailed it.

“In men’s curling, if you don’t have the last hammer you will lose. That was his chance. It was a really good shot. We were maybe a bit on the safe side.

“But it hurts. As soon as I saw how the angles were lined up, I thought, ’I don’t like this, I don’t like this’. When he started to look at it, I thought, ‘Oh dear, he is going to make that’. Under that pressure, you make the semi-final or you are out. It could be the shot of the tournament.”

Britain must now hope they can carry the momentum into Wednesday’s semi-final meeting with Sweden, who topped the round-robin series with just one defeat in their nine games.

Soren said: “It’s good to be going into the semis on the back of a big one like that, which really gets the heart pumping, with lots of shot-making and skill, but obviously we’re going to have to play like that again.”